Picture of the Week
We went to the ward daddy and kid campout this weekend and got to spend the night enjoying a lakeside sunset.
June 2013
The Kids Said…
The peril of having two girls and then a boy is that sometimes things like this happen.
Me (while holding Spencer): “I love my little girl!”
Spencer (indignantly): “Hey! I’m not a girl!”
***
I was at my parents’ house and needed my mom so I yelled, “Mother?”
Spencer said, “Daughter?”
(This made me laugh because that’s always my mom’s response when I call for her. Amazing the things these little kids pick up on.)
***
Spencer was being especially annoying at church trying to escape our pew. When he realized he couldn’t just barrel his way past us he decided to try smooth-talking.
Spencer: “I have to leave now. Be right back.”
***
Spencer ate something spicy at dinner.
Spencer (in between gulps of water): “Mom! Mom! My mouth is biting me!”
***
Spencer has taken a liking to describing things by color. For example, “I see a red tractor.” “I have my blue spoon.” “I want a green cup.” This has the potential to be pretty cute but he is never, ever accurate with his color descriptions.
Until one day.
Spencer: “Mom! I have a yellow car!”
Me: “YES! YES! That IS a yellow car! You said the right color!”
Spencer (beaming): “Yes! See! It’s my green car!”
***
We borrowed my parents’ car while our van was in the shop. Caroline was thrilled to discover she could open the car door by herself. She opened the door every chance she could including one time when I was driving on the freeway.
Me: “Aaaaahhhhh! Caroline! Close the door! Why did you open your door?!”
Caroline (innocently): “I just wanted to feel the wind.”
***
We took the kids roller skating. Dallas went around the rink a couple of times with Brooke. Then he dropped her off with me and took Caroline. Brooke, obviously realizing roller skating was harder than she was anticipating said, “Mom! It was too hard! Dad took me out there without even giving me any training!”
***
Brooke: “I thought they were big puddles, but it’s not.”
Caroline (incredulously): “Big puddles of SNOT?!”
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How We Survive Church With a Toddler
Spencer is being increasingly…how can I say this…a joy to be around during sacrament meeting at church. A complete joy if your idea of happiness is trying to keep a two-year-old content and quiet and in your pew for over an hour each week as you slowly lose your will to live.
One week Spencer was having a fun time trying to surreptitiously inch his way out of our pew into the aisle. Every time he’d go too far I’d grab him, and he’d start flailing his arms and whining. When he realized I wouldn’t let him escape, he’d creep as far as he could and then throw a toy into the aisle knowing that someone would have to be set free for a few moments to grab the item and surely hoping that he’d be the one allowed. How can kids be so scheming at such a young age?!
In a fit of absolute desperation, I grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing vehicles on it. I started with a helicopter. Once Spencer could make out what it was, he ran over, climbed up on my lap, and stayed there motionless for the rest of the meeting moving only long enough to point to each new picture I drew, state its name, and make a request for the next vehicle I should draw.
This little paper has been our church lifesaver:
I now keep it in our diaper bag and anytime Spencer gets restless I can whip it out and ask him to find something on it and that will keep him still and happy for at least a few minutes (especially if I ask him to find the cement truck because my sketch doesn’t really resemble one, so he always gets stumped).
I have realized I’m beyond horrible at drawing cars and trucks. Maybe I’m not very observant? I just have no idea how the wheels connect to the body of the car or what shape the vehicle is or anything like that. At one point Spencer asked for a motorcycle. I can totally imagine how a motorcycle looks in my head, but I cannot transfer that image to paper as is evident by the “motorcycle” that I drew. (See below in the yellow box. My motorcycle is on the left.)
As I was drawing, Spencer kept saying, “No! A motorcycle! No, Mom, a motorcycle! Not that!” Since my drawing certainly wasn’t doing the trick, I passed the paper off to Dallas. Dallas simply drew a circle for the front wheel and Spencer started getting giddy, bouncing up and down, and saying, “Yes! Yes!” Then Dallas drew the line from the center of the wheel up to make the handlebar and Spencer nearly hyperventilated from excitement. “Yes! A motorcycle! A motorcycle!”
Needless to say Dallas has become Spencer’s new artist of choice.
I happened to be in the Dollar Store and saw a coloring book that had cars and trucks in it. I’ve never seen Spencer take much interest in coloring, but I decided to get it and pull it out next time we were at church to see if he would like it. Two Sundays ago that coloring book made its church debut, and Spencer sat and coloring quietly and happily the entire time.
He even found it when we got home and got busy coloring. You’ll have to excuse his face. Lately he’s been squishing his lips over to one side of his face making this expression:
Sometimes he also makes this expression:
He wasn’t appreciating our photo shoot and wanted me to color with him instead.
This past Sunday the coloring book again worked its magic. Thank you, Dollar Store! That coloring book may very well be our key to church activity for the next little while.
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Potpourri
Caroline and Spencer were telling each other secrets at lunch. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever:
Especially when they got caught:
One day we were running a little late and I was trying to herd the kids to the car so we could get Brooke to school on time. I heard a panicked, “Oh! It’s show-and-tell today!” I told Brooke to run and grab something as quickly as she could. She chose her horse. Dressed up in a skirt. With a flower around its neck. Sporting fairy wings. It was quite the sight:
I love it when Spencer plays with little people and animals. Here he put all the ponies in a circle:
Brooke and Caroline went to a birthday party. (Almost) everyone got their faces painted. Brooke chose to have her arm painted instead “so I could watch what they were doing and so it didn’t get in my eyes.”
One day Spencer sat like this at the counter and the girls thought it was hilarious that he looked like he was only a head:
Caroline has really taken to watching out for Spencer lately. Here she is reading to him. Also, I was being stingy with band-aids and wouldn’t let the kids have any unless they were actually bleeding, so Caroline found stickers and placed them on every one of Spencer’s leg scratches:
Brooke loves to put her toys in shoes as if the shoes are cars or boats:
She also loves to arrange all her toys just so. Here everyone is looking at the little dog, Charlie, who got an award for something:
What was on the back of one of Brooke’s school papers? This:
When asked what she drew she said, “There’s some pants and the underwear is above it.” I’m still unclear as to why she felt the need to draw underwear on her paper, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the way Brooke’s mind works will likely always remain a mystery to me.
Since she had a birthday, Brooke got to be Star of the Week. She helped me decorate her poster. I left for a minute and when I came back I saw Brooke had drawn an interesting pony. Upon closer inspection I saw she had made the pony out of the letters of her name. I was speechless:
That Brooke. She just keeps things lively around here.
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Potpourri
I always wait to do my potpourri posts until I have collected enough pictures to create a substantial post. Then I wait some more and end up having so many pictures I have to split my post into two lest your eyeballs be assaulted with too much Golden goodness in one day. Here’s part one!
Brooke loves strawberries and she (and I) really love chocolate-covered strawberries so I made her (and me) some for her birthday:
Brooke’s Primary teacher gave her a birthday gift:
Her teacher was beyond inspired to get her a pony…and not just any pony – the one pony that Brooke was dying to get:
Brooke has been determined to catch a butterfly. One day she did – with her bare hands.
The splash pad is open!
We love the splash pad!
Until the water shuts of and we’re left freezing:
My cute, little Spencer:
Have I told you he sort of has buck teeth?
On Sundays when we don’t have anywhere to go we often get into our pjs, watch a movie as a family, eat M&Ms and try to ignore Spencer’s toe that is forever poking out of a hole in his sock:
Dallas’s dad gave Spencer Lincoln logs for his birthday. The kids had fun building with them:
Spencer does this really annoying thing where he eats pancakes and then uses any leftover syrup on his plate as lotion, rubbing it all over his hands, face, and hair:
Good thing he’s so cute:
Caroline and Spencer thought a diaper box was the perfect place to eat their lunch one day:
It’s already been mentioned around these parts, but Dallas and I went on a date! We went to a concert at Temple Square and then walked around City Creek. It was glorious!
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